Students will have to give multiple interviews for admission in Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) as the IIM council failed to decide on joint counseling and interview mechanism on Wednesday.

Students will have to give multiple interviews for admission in Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) as the IIM council failed to decide on joint counseling and interview mechanism on Wednesday.

HRD minister Kapil Sibal said it was felt that the admission policy of each IIM was sacrosanct and it cannot be distributed. But, the council decided that IIMs will share their admission information and coordinate their counseling systems.

But, Sibal admitted that it will not mean lesser interviews for students who have to go from one IIM to another to appear for interviews based on their CAT test results. A student on average has to appear for three to four interviews to get admission in any of the 13 IIMs.

The council, however, decided that for social audit of each institution from academicians from other institutions and also agreed to turn IIMs into global institutes by attracting foreign students. Every three years there would be an external review of each IIM to weed out any deficiency in them and correct any shortcomings.

The IIMs will also try to shift focus from preparing manpower for investments to management of social sector including health, education and manufacturing.

"We have to gear our IIMs to new shift taking place," Sibal told reporters after chairing a meeting of heads of 13 IIMs. An expert group will be constituted to chalk out manpower requirements of Indian economy and suggest the future course of action for IIMs.

The minister also made it clear that the government had no intention to interfere in functioning of IIMs and it will intervene only in cases of aberrations, which the IIMs fail to handle.